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Click the photo above for a photo gallery from the making of the 'CMT Crossroads.' Here, Patrick Stump of the Fall Out Boy and Kimberly Perry of The Band Perry talk over their parts as they rehearse a song on Oct. 1, 2013, in Nashville. (Photo: Larry McCormack/The Tennessean)

Stump, lead singer for rock group Fall Out Boy, was baffled — even with the help of a teleprompter — the first time his group and Perry’s sibling trio attempted the soaring ballad in rehearsal. While Kimberly Perry nailed the lyrics to her trio’s song, Stump didn’t even attempt the lines assigned to him and asked to go through the song with just Kimberly Perry and a guitar.

“There were a lot of rhythms that just came in sideways in my head,” Stump said of “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely.” “By the end of it, that will probably end up being my favorite song because that was the one we spent the most time on.”

The unexpected collaboration between The Band Perry and Fall Out Boy and the initial confoundedness with “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely” is par for the course for CMT’s long-running cross-genre duet series, “Crossroads.”

While members of both bands struggled at times during rehearsals, they managed to learn each other’s songs enough to confidently perform them together during the next day’s live taping of “Crossroads.”

“It’s interesting because there’s all this angst going (into the taping) about who is going to do what,” said John Hamlin, executive producer on “Crossroads” and senior vice president of music events and talent at CMT. “When ultimately the musicians step onto the stage for the first rehearsal, they instantly speak a language that the rest of us don’t speak and they work it out between themselves. They are always very gracious and very generous and very inclusive.”

Costello and Mellencamp will perform in tribute to Burnett, who has produced projects for both artists. He also produced and contributed to the soundtrack of Bridges’ film “Crazy Heart;” the actor/musician will present Burnett with the Tony Martell Lifetime Entertainment Achievement Award.

Gill will be honored by two surprise performers, and wife Amy Grant will present him with the Frances Williams Preston Lifetime Music Industry Award. Nashville hit songwriters Tim Nichols, Brett James and Rivers Rutherford are also scheduled to perform.

The T.J. Martell Foundation funds medical research with a focus on finding cures for leukemia, cancer and AIDS.

Dale Dodson, Cochran’s close friend and the co-producer (with Buddy Cannon) of Jamey Johnson’s gorgeous new Cochran tribute album, says, “Nobody put himself through more hell than Hank: He’d get in the lowest of lows, put himself in a deep state of depression, and pour that out in eight lines of a song.”

And Johnson says, “Hank was not a sorrowful person. Hank was a happy man.”

They’re probably all correct. That’s the thing. Throughout most of his

74 years, Cochran was whatever he needed to be in order to write whatever he needed to write.

Jamey Johnson and a crew of country legends and music stars pay tribute to late songwriting great Hank Cochran with his new album "Livin' For a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran," which is set to hit stores on October 16.

"If I had to dream up somebody like Hank to influence songwriters, I couldn't have done a better job," Johnson said in a release. "That's what he was-- not just for me, but for Willie and for a lot of people--just a helpful friend. If he knew you needed help with something, he could help you. He was there. And that's what I want to be for the people in my life, same as Hank. He influenced me, not only as an artist and songwriter, but also as a person."

Anyone who ever doubted the transformative power of Bob Dylan's music need only look to Ke$ha.

Yes, Ke$ha.

Nashville's own irreverent pop star known for singing about brushing her teeth with "a bottle of Jack" turns poignant while covering a song from one of music's great lyricists on the new four-disc "Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International." The project features 75 newly recorded Dylan songs by 80 artists, including Adele, Sting, Sugarland, Elvis Costello, hip-hop artist K'naan and others to support the human rights organization. The album will be available internationally on Jan. 30.

Ke$ha is one of the more unlikely stars to contribute to the compilation, released Tuesday. The pop star defined by party anthems like "Tik Tok" and "Your Love Is My Drug" took on Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright." As she found herself alone in her bedroom for the first time in months, the words of the song - about a person bidding goodbye to a lover - took on a new, deeply personal meaning. She realized she was saying goodbye to her carefree, former life - before big hits and world tours brought on pressure and priorities. She broke down as she began singing, and the emotion is captured on the record.

Not to be confused with the pop crooner Johnny Mathis, the Maude, Texas-born Mr. Mathis was a prolific songwriter who sometimes sold the rights of his songs in return for cash: He sold his writer’s share of “If You Don’t Somebody Else Will,” a Top 10 country hit in 1953 for Jimmy & Johnny, the duo of Mr. Mathis and Jimmy Lee Fautheree, for $15. On Mr. Mathis’ website, he claimed to have used that $15 on a bottle of vodka, some pinball games and a night’s stay at a YMCA.

Mr. Mathis recorded for labels including Chess, Columbia, Mercury, Decca, United Artists, Little Darlin’ and Hilltop. He appeared on the Louisiana Hayride, the Grand Ole Opry, TNN’s Nashville Now and numerous other programs. Country Music Hall of Famer Jones recorded two dozen of Mr. Mathis’ songs, including “Brown To Blue,” later recorded by Elvis Costello.

Mr. Mathis turned his back on the vodka-and-pinball life in 1964, when he wrote a song called “I’m Gonna Thank Jesus” and abandoned his country music career to focus on his religion. He sang gospel music in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, moving to Nashville in 1980 and staying in Tennessee until his death.

Mr. Mathis suffered a stroke in 1999 that left him incapacitated.

Visitation and funeral arrangements are being conducted by Lawrence Brothers Funeral Home of Chapel Hill, Tenn. Mr. Mathis is survived by wife Jeannie Mathis, daughter Sherie Craver and sons John, Jr., Bill and James, as well as by 11 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.